In the mid-1950s, at a time when Detroit automobile manufacturers sold 7.92 million cars in one year and 70 percent of American families owned automobiles, the American road system was still noted for its inadequacies. No four-lane highways existed, except for the eastern toll roads, and expressways were to be found only in the nation's cities. President Dwight Eisenhower, who once made the trip from coast to coast along the nation's roads, was well aware of the problems and became the originator of the interstate highway system. Building a national highway system was more expensive and elaborate than most New Deal programs. In addition, the highway system shifted economic power to the Sunbelt, bypassing the main streets and roadside towns that had been travel waystations, and homogenizing American roadside culture. By making longer commutes possible, the highways changed how many of us worked.

Americans have had a...